on the. video on demand. mind hold. on a chance for you now with the palm of your. machine. here in tripoli the regime is showing signs of crumbling amid reports that more and more senior officials are defecting on paula zahn in the capital city join me in a few moments and i'll bring you more. there will be no american boots on the ground in libya recent press reports at least either cia operatives on the ground so boots on the ground as i would define it the u.s. top brass gets a grilling in congress but many still uncertain as to what the goal of the be and is and who's going to pay for it. and the integrity of america's motives ostrich you know it doesn't even nor civilian deaths in gaza some percentage that

jumps at the opportunity to bring democracy to other regions. also russia prepares for an anniversary spaceflight sending you so you steam into orbit fifty years since mankind's first trip to the final frontier. the price of oil has reached a two and a half year high due to the conflict in libya join me for that story and more in business and around twenty minutes time. for the day you're watching r.t. we're live from moscow welcome to the program the u.k. is reportedly hosting a senior aide to the libyan regime and is believed to be seeking an exit strategy for the leader moammar gadhafi some media sources and. yes that more top ranking

libyan officials have now fled the country probing in the footsteps of the former foreign minister concert press corps live now to our teams porous there who's in tripoli for us what are we witnessing a major split within gadhafi his rights here. well it certainly does seem that way we know i have at this moment of at least two high profile defections the country's foreign minister mr mr moose of course there is currently in london where he is meeting with british officials despite the fact that they say they will not granting immunity and then mr. tricky is also a former foreign minister of libya he was also an ambassador to the united nations where he served a term as president of the general assembly has also announced his departure now there can be no doubt that this is a psychological blow to the gadhafi regime certainly what we're hearing from london is that the regime is on the verge of crumbling but here in tripoli the government has actually laughed off all these kind of suggestions of defections when questioned about what is the defection of the foreign minister the country's

spokesperson mr mousavi brought him said that this was an old man he was exhausted he was suffering from diabetes and he actually approached the government for a leave of absence in which he could seek treatment abroad now mr morsi for him said that they have granted the prime minister this and he going so fast to say that if the foreign minister returns he will be welcomed back now when we questioned him about rumors we're hearing of at least another ten people who have defected the latest news we have is that a group of libyan officials who traveled to two newsier for talks are actually staying there and among them a former prime minister and also the current head of the country's parliament the government has said it is simply unaware of this now almost as important if not more important are reports that we are hearing that for the past fortnight one of the most trusted aides of the gadhafi regime has been in london where he's been holding secret talks with will for it is there over a possible exit strategy for gadhafi so the questions that people are asking another one is the jaffee planning some kind of exit and secondly for just how much

longer can his regime survive with the defection of such high profile members who are indeed very clearly this is all a serious political blow to gadhafi but it does seem that is troops are still advance and paula. his troops are still advancing the current fighting is centered around the strategically all important town of brega which is on the coastal road to tripoli now it is essentially fighting that's happening out in the desert the rebels are fighting from behind sangean is the strategy they use in the small trucks from where they fired rocket artillery they've been seen spotters with by knockhill is to go and see where those rockets landed and she reports back we're hearing that they are a lot more organized the rebels themselves but they are they still calling on the international community for assistance in the form of weapons fighting in the eastern part of the country in the city of misrata continues there in the last twenty four hours we've been told that at least twenty civilians were killed by government shelling in residential areas here in tripoli airstrikes and aircraft

gunfire continues now for two weeks there almost nonstop demonstrations in support of the libyan leader moammar gadhafi and rallies being held one was held overnight thursday at his compound. at the same time we're hearing from the vatican's top envoy to libya that at least forty civilians have been killed in the airstrikes in tripoli alone most of those casualties in the eastern tripoli suburb of treasurer and one such incident that we've been told about is when a house collapsed on the family with small children inside libyan state television is also reporting what it says is a statement that is from gadhafi himself although he doesn't appear on television it is rather a news reader reads off this statement saying that these nato airstrikes are just going to cause more civilian deaths and just spark a crusader will. carry your paula live for us here not any thank you. but u.s.

defense secretary robert gates and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff mike mullen faced a grilling in front of congress over the libyan campaign gates said washington shouldn't assisted living in group homes and should instead be even nation building to other countries. twelve days into the u.s. bombing of libya. u.s. congressmen were hoping to finally get some answers but after two hours of questioning the secretary of defense and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff they were so confusing about the u.s. is ending i think a policy success would be the removal of the khadafi regime a military mission is a limited one and does not include regime change. who the rebels are we don't have much visibility into and of those who have risen against each element has its own agenda. and whether the us will arm them discuss our plans if you any regarding

arming the rebels they seem to be getting better but swift but it's in mind pass the buck and that one differing to the white house or if there was a qaeda decided to bristle in there and we would clearly have a problem but that how long the u.s. will stay the bottom line is no one can predict for you how long it will take. for that to happen and whether the u.s. is at war at all these are combat operations were intended to be combat operations from the beginning i don't know why this administration has not been honest with the american people that this is about regime change or your circular defense you ought to be an expert on what's an act of war act of war or not gates told congress the president actually did not make his final decision on what to do until thursday night less than forty eight hours before the first two hundred tomahawk missiles were fired we don't understand what he's doing still and i don't think he has the support of this congress when was the briefing of the armed services committee.

there wasn't what is clear the cost five hundred fifty million dollars in the first ten days alone and it estimated forty million dollars a month but not how it will be paid in terms of how to pay for this. there is a. we are in the discussions with the white house would be very difficult for the department to eat this cost gates and mullen repeated over and over again there would be no american ground troops there would be no american boots on the ground in libya who is the person on the ground but historically close air support missions against gadhafi forces there is no one recent press reports at least indicate there are cia operatives around so boots on the ground as i would define it and other spending troops i guess is we'd all read about it in the newspaper at the same time i see that's my concern is that we read about things in the newspaper

and then we get to come and ask the questions the u.s. formally handed control to nato today and operation odyssey dawn and beginning operation unified protector but newspapers quoting vatican sources said that forty civilians were killed in coalition air strikes guaranteeing that there will be plenty of more questions for a top american military brass here in washington and fort artsy washington d.c. well washington has reportedly sent cia teams into libya to gather information and set up with rebels former u.s. intelligence officer for the wrong thing says if secret agents operating the battlefield a ground mission could be unavoidable. the problem is if you have several thousand rebels who are not used to using weapons have no idea of discipline or how to fight a battle a general is not going to make a big difference you need to have people training them and directing them at a lower level than of cia people are doing this at a lower level that means they will inevitably get involved in the fighting and this

is what robert gates as recently as today promised would never happen boots on the ground. later today artie's cross-talk debate show discusses who's backing the rebels as a military campaign if you're eight years old and supreme. we have to be a little skeptical that that's a u.s. good u.s. strategy to go in and then hope for it is the idea that he had hoped i guess you could quote the president's own saying to run a strategy like this or we're going to get into some and that sort of thing and hope for the best and i just don't see going to war in that way is responsible and i can't believe the us foreign policy establishment is supporting that type of a half baked option but this is not the u.s. it is the gadhafi in fact the u.s. is they can i but cannot see through it this is a forty three countries internationally are you are yes i mean even country it is the u.s. against. this is my point please can i finish my point please five out of

countries two of them are engaged in the military action you know rate canada. and netherlands sort of denmark twenty three countries france britain you know this is not the u.s. against gaddafi and we have not invited you as to come in. as the first country to the launch air strikes over libya front's has taken one of the leading roles in the british action against itself can be seen many now see it has in its hands to overhaul its image in the international arena and claim influence in the region. reports france was plotting war on libya already last year are raising fresh fears over the country's global ambitions. but the french and british forced to work to nor but the french are preparing

british operations last november forming a small arab nation seemed like an easy way to put france on the map print once again on what i call the imperial condominium a recurrent quest of africa but with no wind to the invasion in sight and she war protests are rocketing across the european union. war in libya with both the bridge and breastfeeds abroad congress nor the government the popularity of more were dead as the ball be continues oppositional both sides growing demonstrators say they see through france's noble claims it can't claim humanitarian intervention but it's really. the result of record numbers saying nor the french president nicolas sarkozy. because of more. presidents for ever of the

last forty years. french leaders who told a quick military victory would revive their reputation now sound distinctly out of tune don't you see paris. well so to come on the program craft perfected through time. if i could do their thinking was somewhat low income it was like oh what's that great still people here for you you make some things which are being hunted by what you call the world over where it's from fancy watches to cold steel weapons a craftsman of the rules farewell this. hill's latest wild russian closeups. military action to get off his actions has been criticised by some for its inconsistency former conflicts show some leaders can escape punishment if they have the backing of the west. african reports from washington. warm

welcome and for handshakes for someone who just three years ago gave the order that led to the deaths of civilians in the republic of south. dealing with one of the great leaders of the world the georgian president with his fluent english is a welcome guest on american t.v. shows where he's never asked the question why in the middle of the night on august the seventh of two thousand and eight a georgia begin the major artillery bombardment of the sleeping city of screen vault and other peaceful palace nearby. the region which georgia wanted to bring under its control was raced to the ground. hundreds were killed in the attack. nearly lost his daughter in sacrifice really is bombings she was visiting relatives in one of the counseling south side here i believe saakashvili should be removed from office i think you should be tried in international courts for rule crimes but

when it comes to mikhail saakashvili even those the e.u. finding mission determined that he started the war in two thousand and eight and ordered the bloodbath in southall city and the georgian president is still supported in the west they have no strategic interest in. supporting his overthrow the notion that decisions get made on the basis of humanitarian concerns is simply false it doesn't it's not a basis for the decision about libya it's not a basis for decisions about georgia about palestine about kosovo a question of who is held responsible and how is very much a strategic question it's not a legal question as it should be to boost its strategic importance among other things georgia has dispatched one thousand troops to join allied forces in afghanistan and became the leading troop contributor relative to georgia's overall

population the valueless and as this fox. the show's almost unstoppable praise of the u.s. is also believed to have played a role in the west supporting saakashvili no matter what his pints america's like because he faced number two in the murder of archer they're more worried the referee broke through got religion is to say for a graduation the bastards are here now as the world has declared a no fly zone over libya to stop gadhafi many wonder why a no fly zone was never on the table when the georgian president launched his deadly campaign or when israel bombed the gallows of those three weeks in a row on the question for example of gaza where you had a blatant act of aggression clearly a violent massive violation of not only international human rights norms but war crimes crimes against humanity being created fourteen hundred people killed of whom or the nine hundred were civilians more than three hundred were children it was

a horrific situation that went on for days the problem there is that israel is the the protector protectorate of the united states and the u.s. was not going to allow anyone the united nations or anyone else to actually engage in a serious way in stopping that massacre you would think if a leader commits atrocities he would be pretty like they could definitely be now banned from travel but with criminals that's not the way politics works the georgian president killed scores of civilians but was exonerated by the west politicians accept him as a friend business leaders are looking to invest in his country and it seems the worst is happy to continue turning a blind eye to the blood of such a beast head i'm going to check our reporting for washington our team. breaking get more news stories and developments from r.t. on our websites just type in r.t. dot com the us why russia's human rights council got into the spelling error problems and discovered what it's like and then it remains.

read about. russia's first man in space left with only just days before the launch . and continuing with the final frontier the russian space agency has dedicated its latest so you spacecraft the launch the anniversary of the reader garance a legendary flight in fifty years ago blasting off from kazakhstan in four days time the launch will carry two russian cosmonauts southern american astronauts to the international space station fourteen stars are serious the story. well it's a few days before the a crew of the t.m.a. twenty one it blasts off into space and as expected in a few days in the run up to the the actual flight they're going through the

preflight preparations and right now what you're seeing behind me is the actual capsule that will be taken suspects this is the top part of the a space shuttle where the actual crew will be staying and the crew members that we have of for this flight are i'm excited there are some. two percent go and american astronaut ron garan now what they're going through right now is actually called a fifth check literally checking whether they fit into the seats that have been made it is designed especially for them each astronaut cosmonaut has a different build a different weight different height and so they have to customize everything inside the cabin crew area so that they're going to feel comfortable in doing the tasks are supposed to do now the blast off will happen in a approximately about four four days and they're going to be doing about forty experiments in space let's measure about this if you can see in the background is that you can see where you would be a good guard in the first man in space a logo of him a cat or having a very special about this why does that it's happening very closely i mean first with live to adversity and

a few to get got its first flight the space that was of course april twelfth when my team is sixty one all the p five perforations are very precise and followed down to the last detail but it's not just the mathematics the science of rocket science that is that we actually follow to the last two to but it's also the traditions to be a cosmonauts and astronauts have to go through a few days before the flight and today they had gone to the museum as have the other cosmonauts who had gone to space they visited the museum you got a museum they put their signatures every single person that had launched it was gone into space had done the exact same thing they signed they went to be a good god it's a cottage as well they visited that and it's again it's even more special now that they're doing this because of the fiftieth anniversary of the first launch of unity god. rather than some other international story. it's making headlines this hour. roughly that officials are planning to pump out contaminated water from the stricken reactors at fukushima nuclear plant authorities hope the measure will help

resume efforts to restore the facilities cooling system it's unclear when the operation will start as radiation levels around the site continue to rise latest tests show it's now ten thousand times the legal limit in the groundwater needed lot. gunfire has broken out across ivory coast's financial capital this fight is attempting to unseat the country's entrenched president want to send it off for grants and the city comes after forces supported international in the us president and so. to control the majority of the country regular. resistance. to the. un has now introduced sanctions or placing an asset freeze a travel ban on the interim president. former origin general of a larger company us has been sentenced to life in prison for his involvement in

running a secret detention center during his military rule three other intelligence officers were also convicted for the murder torture and illegal imprisonment of left wing political activists almost two hundred people kidnapped during his command many from europe right cuba the crimes were part of operation condor in one thousand nine hundred seventy five run by military officials and crushing opposition movements. are going on now today are russia closer team goes to the chile of its region located on the border between europe and asia for centuries now it's been a defense powerhouse bizarre reason establishing the soviet union's forgettable. not cold steel and nuclear weapons are the only contributions that the city has

made but their case now it's been a manufacturing giant that using everything from military what she's doing great metal works and runs or into the sky discovered some of those hell humans of the past are experiencing come back as collectors and the public turn to time with classics. time stand still is that oldest. of this time top three right wing is lagging the time to turn anything has to be here over the last thirty to forty years that's when i look around there are some of the archives i'll catch phrases like this one player from back in my childhood they were made in one thousand six thousand nine hundred seventy but this. was the words income it was like oh what's that great still people hear from you you make some things which are being hunted by what's called a third world of work you may have heard of these russian divers watches they have been hard by collectors worldwide for several decades now but most can only get

their hands on costly replicas which have nothing to do with the originals the real deal is being made right here in the town of the toast. we produced these watches until nine hundred seventy four for the soviet navy then we stopped because there was no need for them but now suddenly they become popular so we renewed production but in a very small capacity now these are the famous divers watches which these labels watch pointers are known for of course there is nothing dainty about them they're extremely heavy and well frankly very bulky so i don't think i could pull them all but for any watch in those years to all there was in two big things this may just be the ultimate choice and it's not only watch fans taken care of here so that those have something to offer even some modern day swashbucklers history with them . from eight hundred fifteen it's not host was the center of calderon's production in the country return essentially supplied weapons to the entire russian imperial

army. these days the town supplies cold steel weapons widely used by russian special forces and military and state officials and state gifts and rewards for outstanding service. clients include the army read russian federal security service and private collectors were called still weapons and more of a symbolic item now rather than a functional one they signify power in order to this day i think every officer should at least have a cutlass in his possession. so whether you're looking to reaffirm your status with a blade or to keep time with a heavy duty military watch is that almost the town of iron workers who manage to evolve with time but probably have what you want it includes corti children's krege and. timeless classics and or look at the latest business news that we could trade in a few moments stay with us. thanks

for staying with us here on r.t. and it is time to bring up to date with all the business for this hour the price of oil is reach a two and a half year high amid new concerns about the situation in libya when crude is currently trading around one hundred seventeen dollars a barrel while light sweet is around one hundred seven dollars the chairman of germany's energy giant winter's holdings the oil price should hold around the current levels. we do see an oil prize which is in the order of magnitude of one hundred ten dollars plus per barrel i think the recent development you see in the wall than in should we really keep the oil price on this for the level we do

see right now but the volatility will increase pending what is really happening on our globe is therefore we have to deal with the situation but the level on short i do see a bit. but it's have a look at how the stock markets are performing the nikkei average age low on friday as profit taking kicked in average had advance to a two week high shortly after opening with investors came to light in recently built positions ahead of the retail and meanwhile shares of tokyo electric power company the operator of the fukushima nuclear station plunged a further twelve percent after initially climbing shortly after opening and hong kong shares advance to take gains into the third straight session with energy producers leading the way on the growing oil prices right now though the nikkei is slightly up but point four of a percent and the hang seng is also slightly after point one six. here in russia the markets are due to open in just under an hour's time both the r.t.s. and the my six closed mixed on thursday the r.t.s.

gained less than half a percent while the my six lost just a tenth of percent. proposals by president medvedev to have government governments officials off the board of the state of the border state companies has affected the russian markets on tuesday role and national capital says the changes will continue having an impact on the market. today the market is really going to be focusing on. the results of what we saw yesterday. the president made comments about the. board of directors what does this mean for what does this mean for how does it impact the companies that are associated with the price that it is difficult to price something off markets as those kind of comments will be looking at the government controlled company it seems to be changing at the moment in those government controlled companies they are

fundamentally some of the cheapest assets in emerging markets globally so if there is likely to be any positive change there. well that's all the business we have time for this hour but you can always keep up to date on line of. business. british. markets. find out what's really happening to the global economy. the global financial headlines. the official. from the.